The Relaxing Lady’s Library

Event Details

For the month of February, Tritriangle is pleased to host The Relaxing Lady’s Library. Open Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays throughout February, the Library presents an immersive media collection which invites you to calmly explore, use, and reuse in the pursuit of your ideal relaxed state.

By their nature, libraries are an invitation to slow down, to reflect, and to build community. As spaces for study, for recreational reading, and for quiet, they bring people together in their solitude–a space for public privacy. Programs like readings, storytelling, or workshops give space for community to come together.

The Relaxing Lady’s Library magnifies those aspects of community libraries, responding to an urgent impulse to slow down, to gather friends and potential-friends together in camaraderie against the frantic pace of everyday life, to share a moment of quiet. The collection itself encourages reflection and community-building, highlighting quiet moments and offering resources for learning about the past, being more present in the current moment, and creating a better present. The bulk of the Relaxing Lady’s collection consists of spoken word, sound effect, and field recordings on vinyl records and audio cassettes, with topics ranging from guided meditation to poetry to history to bird songs. The more limited print collection includes herbalist and field guides, collections of folk art, and books on science experiments for children.

The Relaxing Lady’s Library will be participating in 2nd Floor Rear on Sunday February 8 from 10am-1pm.

For 2nd Floor Rear, Relaxing Librarian Jessica Speer will perform “Unguided Meditation” using materials from the Library, inviting the audience to immerse themselves in a sea of relaxation. Tea & coffee will be served, and the collection is open for browsing before and after the performance.

As this event is family friendly, we request that you do not attend when ill to avoid spreading germs to any wee ones who may be present. Thank you!

The Library is open each W/Sa/Su from 11am-7pm, but there are some special occurrences happening at the times and dates below:

•Sun 2/8, 10 am – 1 pm: Unguided Meditation (2nd Floor Rear).
Relaxing Librarian Jessica Speer will lead participants on an odyssey of relaxation techniques, leading them deeper and deeper into an increasingly deep and wide sea of ways to relax.

•Wed 2/11: Open Hours

•Sat 2/14: Relaxing Babies
Though the Library is open to babies and small children at all times, today is baby day.

•Sun 2/15, 3 pm: Evidence Poems, by Becky Grajeda

•Wed 2/18, 5-7 pm: LP Yoga
Bring your yoga mat and follow along with one of several yoga records in the library collection.

•Sat 2/21, 3 pm: Tape Deck Performance by Chad Clark

•Sun 2/22, TBD

•Wed 2/25: Open Hours

•Sat 2/28, 3 pm: Closing Performance

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Jessica Speer is a librarian, artist and Relaxing Lady. Her work, including field recordings, puppet shows, collections of items, and zines, touches on questions of ecology, community, history, mortality and archival practices.

Inspired by library projects like the Reanimation Library (Brooklyn) and the Prelinger Library (San Francisco) as well as her experience as Programming Coordinator for the Read/Write Library (Chicago), she began collection development for the Relaxing Lady’s Library after moving to Chicago in 2010. The bulk of the Relaxing Lady’s collection consists of vinyl records and audio cassettes, primarily spoken word, sound effect, and field recordings. Topics in the collection range from guided meditation to poetry to history to bird songs. The more limited print collection includes herbalist and field guides, collections of folk art, and books on science experiments for children.

Speer performs with her husband Peter under the name The Speers, primarily creating live improvisations with their collections of library LPs and modular synthesizers, utilizing live sampling and signal processing to find the hypnotic patterns hidden in ordinary sounds.